40 Years

November 5, 1987

SHADES OF Elmer Gantry and the judges of the Salem witch trials. It took me 40 years to overcome my prejudice regarding Baptists. Having grown up in a small town dominated by Southern Baptists, I believed they were all hypocrites and frauds. After reading statements by various ministers, I am almost back where I started.

It is difficult to believe they were not tongue-in-cheek positions on Halloween.

Why is it evil or wrong to let children have great games of let's pretend and learn to laugh at stories of ghosts, goblins and witches?

I believe it is a healthy outlook.

Once I lived in a town where children hung May baskets on friends' doors. Will May Day be a communists' day for the adults? I think not.